What's in a name?

The idea of selling naming rights for stadiums, arenas and other venues has always vaguely bothered me, and Clyde Haberman of The New York Times today did an excellent job summarizing why in a column about the New York Mets selling naming rights to their new stadium. Alas, columnists on the Times website are considered premium content, and I get an error message every time I try setting up a TimesSelect account, so I can't link to it.

But Haberman's point is this: it's about honor. Shea Stadium bears that name in honor of William Shea, a New York businessman who was instrumental in bringing National League baseball back to the Big Apple after the Dodgers and Giants fled west. Haberman writes, "Naming rights are not to be confused with honor. Honor is something bestowed upon you. It is not something you can insist is your due. A company name spread above the front door on demand is a billboard."

That holds true whether we're talking about Citi Field in Queens, Invesco Field at Mile High (a particular sore spot for me, a Denver Broncos fan, who has fond memories of Mile High Stadium) or Dodge Music Center in Hartford. None of those three names relates to a time, place or person — they're entirely generic. In fact, there are two venues named after Dodge (the other is in Arizona), a bunch of Tweeter Centers and even more arenas named after Pepsi.

I understand, sports and music are businesses, and stadium names are clearly a source of revenue. Funny enough, though, none of those names makes me want to buy a Dodge, drink Pepsi or hire Invesco to manage my money, which makes me wonder about the efficacy of, say, Citi spending $20 million a year to put its name on the Mets' new home. Haberman addresses that, too: "All that most fans want is a winning team," he writes. "But it does not mean they can't tell the difference between an honor and a billboard."

I hear that. Unfortunately, the sponsor is king these days. It makes me sick. Everything that can be sold is sold. At least the time-honored tradition of naming buildings on college campuses after high-end donors still have *names* attached to them and not faceless corporations. It's not honor, but it's something, I guess.

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Eric R. Danton is rock critic for The Hartford Courant, covering (to varying degrees) everything that's not jazz or classical music, with an emphasis on the local scene. ... read more